Collected Stories for Children

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Collected Stories for Children
Collected Stories for Children.jpg
First edition
Author Walter de la Mare
Illustrator
CountryUnited Kingdom
LanguageEnglish
GenreChildren's fantasy short stories, fairy tales
Publisher Faber and Faber
Publication date
1947
Media typePrint (hardback & paperback)
Pages437 pp (first edition) [1]
OCLC 53052613
LC Class PZ7.D3724 Co [3]

Collected Stories for Children is a collection of 17 fantasy stories or original fairy tales by Walter de la Mare, first published by Faber in 1947 with illustrations by Irene Hawkins. [1] [3] De la Mare won the annual Carnegie Medal recognising the year's best children's book by a British subject. [4] It was the first collection to win the award [5] and the first time that previously published material had been considered. [6]

Contents

Stories

The collection comprises 17 stories. [2] [3]

Illustrations

Irene Hawkins was the original illustrator. She had illustrated several of the author's early collections and Muriel M. Green said in 1948 review of Collected Stories, "Mr de la Mare is especially fortunate in having found, in Irene Hawkins, an illustrator who can interpret his work so perfectly, and this volume is enhanced by her charming illustrations." [8] For the 1957 edition new illustrations were commissioned from Robin Jacques, a highly regarded illustrator of fairy-tales. Marcus Crouch considers these line-drawings among Jacques' best work, artistically emphasising the homeliness of de la Mare's world. [9]

Literary significance and reception

In the decade after the First World War some of the best work for children was in poetry, fantasy and poetic fantasy, [7] and there was a spate of original stories in the folk-tale manner. [10] Walter de la Mare, primarily a poet, published several short books of such stories for children in the 1920s and 1930s, and the best of his tales were brought together in his Collected Stories for Children. [7] The stories range over a variety of subjects, but all have the touch of tender, dream-like melancholy which is the hallmark of the author's work in general. [10]

Roger Lancelyn Green described Walter de la Mare's stories as having a strong but very particular appeal: "These strange, homely tales of wonder captivate a limited audience – and are frequently foisted on children by adults who have fallen under their very real spell. It is a spell, however, and one of selective magic, catching some readers away into the true lands of enchantment, and boring others to distraction." [11]

The award of the Carnegie Medal was unexpected, as none of the stories were new, but the collection was considered to give an opportunity for assessing and acknowledging "the achievement of the most gifted writer of the century who had dedicated his finest powers to delighting children". [10]

See also

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References

  1. 1 2 3 "Collected stories for children" (London: Faber, 1947); microfilm copy of that first edition. WorldCat library record. Retrieved 23 July 2012.
  2. 1 2 "Collected stories for children" (London: Faber, 1957). WorldCat library record. Retrieved 23 July 2012. This record for the "New edition" illustrated by Robin Jacques includes a list of 17-story titles.
  3. 1 2 3 "Collected stories for children" (first edition). Library of Congress Catalog Record. Retrieved 14 September 2012. This record from the US national library includes a list of 17-story titles.
  4. Carnegie Winner 1947. Living Archive: Celebrating the Carnegie and Greenaway Winners. CILIP. Retrieved 27 February 2018.
  5. "The Carnegie Medal: Full List of Winners". The CILIP Carnegie & Kate Greenaway Children's Book Awards. Archived from the original on 30 April 2007. Retrieved 2 October 2014.
  6. Keith Barker, In the Realms of Gold: The Story of the Carnegie Medal, Julia MacRae Books, 1986.
  7. 1 2 3 John Rowe Townsend, Written for Children: An Outline of English-Language Children's Literature, Third revised edition, Penguin 1987, p. 144.
  8. Muriel M. Green, "The Children's Book Section", Library Review11.6 (1948), pp. 405–07.
  9. Marcus Crouch, Treasure Seekers and Borrowers: Children's Books in Britain 1900–1960, The Library Association, 1962, p. 134.
  10. 1 2 3 Crouch, p. 46.
  11. Roger Lancelyn Green, Tellers of Tales, Edmund Ward, 1965 edition, p. 270.
Awards
Preceded by Carnegie Medal recipient
1947
Succeeded by